On December 17, the House approved, by voice vote, a bill (H.R. 4579) to reauthorize the Mental Health Parity Act (P.L. 104-204). The Senate approved it by unanimous consent on December 22. It will now go to the White House for President Bush’s signature.
The law, which requires employer-provided health insurance plans to impose the same lifetime limits on mental health benefits as apply to medical and surgical benefits, would be extended through December 31, 2006.
Urging Congress to do more for Americans suffering from mental illnesses, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) noted that while he receives equal coverage for both his asthma and bipolar disorder because Congress has comprehensive mental health parity, the general public is not afforded that same treatment. “When you [the general public] try to go and try to get treatment for bipolar disorder, for schizophrenia, for major depression, for any number of mental illnesses, you are told you have to pay a higher copay, a higher deductible, and you are told that you have to pay a higher premium on top of that, all because this country still treats mental illness as if it is not a physical illness,” he said.
Responding to Rep. Kennedy’s call for increased parity, bill sponsor Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) agreed that while the bill may not be enough for most people it was “a step in the right direction.” He cautioned that a balance has to be achieved given the fact that “we have 45 million Americans who have no health insurance at all, and we know that every time we mandate a benefit on employers’ insurance policies, we raise the cost of those policies. And what is the result of higher health insurance policies? More uninsured Americans.”
